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Libyan Premier League
The Libyan Premier League is the highest division of Libyan football championship, organised by Libyan Football Federation. The players that play in this league are mainly professional. The league's system has changed many times over the last few years, although as of the 2009–10 season, a simple round-robin has been operated. The league operates a system of promotion and relegation with the Libyan Second Division. The league is currently sponsored by the Libyan telephone company Libyana, and so is officially known as the Libyana Premier League. Matches are usually played over a three or four day period, starting on Thursday and ending on Saturday or Sunday. The league has been ranked by the IFFHS as the 56th best in the world for 2009, making it the 5th best ranked league in the Arab world, after the Saudi Professional League, the Egyptian Premier League, the Algerian Championnat National, & the Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle 1 The league's television rights are owned by Libya Sports. They also show a highlights program, called 90 Minutes, which broadcasts every week. The league is dominated by two clubs: Al Ittihad and Al Ahly (Tripoli). 40 of the 41 titles have been won by clubs from the two biggest cities: Benghazi & Tripoli. History The Libyan Premier League was founded in 1963. Prior to that, there were three Provincial Championships, one each for the Eastern , Western and Southern provinces. The first league season at national level was the 1963-64 season, in which participated the Western Province champion Al Ahly (Tripoli), the Eastern Province champion Al Ahly (Benghazi) and the Southern Province champion Hilal Sabha. After the withdrawal of Hilal Sabha due to lack of resources, the league was limited to just two teams. Al Ahly (Tripoli) defeated Al Ahly (Benghazi) 2-0 over two matches (1-0 home and away) to become the first Libyan Premier League champions. The Competition As of 2009–10, there will be 14 teams competing in the league. During the course of a season, from October to June, each club plays each of the other teams twice; once at home and once away, totaling 26 games for each team by the end of the season. Therefore, in Libyan football a true round-robin format is used. In the first half of the season, called the ذهاب - Dhahaab, each team plays exactly one time against each league opponent, for a total of 13 games. In the second half of the season, called the إياب - Iyaab, the teams play in exactly the same order that they did in the first half of the season, the only difference being that home and away situations are switched. Since the 1992–93 season, teams were awarded three points for a win, one point for a draw, and no points for a loss. If two or more teams are tied for a particular position, the tie-breaker is as follows: *I) Head-to-Head record between the team(s) in question: **i) Total number of goals scored in meetings between team(s) in question **ii) Total number of away goals scored in meetings between team(s) in question *II) Goal difference *III) Total number of goals scored *IV) Play-off match at neutral venue. African Qualification Based on CAF's current 5 Year Ranking, only one representative will be proposed to compete in each of the CAF Confederation Cup and the CAF Champions League. These teams are the league champions and the domestic cup winners. Due to Al Ittihad's success in the 2007 CAF Champions League, where they reached the Semi Final, the Libyan Premier League earned three points, meaning it could propose a further representative for each of the four following editions. In 2008, where Libya shared the 12th place ranking with Angola and Senegal, and was therefore allowed to propose a further representative to each competition. These two teams were Al Ahly (Tripoli) (runners-up), who qualified for the 2009 CAF Champions League and Al Ahly (Benghazi) (3rd place), who qualified for the 2009CAF Confederation Cup. Winners Al Ittihad are the most successful Libyan club, having won 16 titles, including 6 straight titles (from 2004–05 to 2009–10. Their arch rivals Al Ahly (Tripoli) have won it 10 times, but have not won the title since the 1999–2000 season. The last team to win the title from outside the capital was Al Olympique, who won the league in the 2003–04 season. The Big Two (Al Ahly (Tripoli) & Al Ittihad) have won 29 of the 42 titles that have been contested since 1964. Champions by season Winners are: Performance by club Titles by city 2010–11 Clubs Top scorers by season Top scorers are: Regulations The rules can be found on the official LFF website External links *League at FIFA Category:Leagues Category:Confederation of African Football Category:Competitions